PLAY IT AGAIN, SAM

Go, Michele, go!

Exclusive: Joseph Farah is buoyed by prospect of lawmaker moving to White House

Joseph Farah is founder, editor and chief executive officer of WND. He is the author or co-author of 13 books that have sold more than 5 million copies, including his latest, "The Gospel in Every Book of the Old Testament." Before launching WND as the first independent online news outlet in 1997, he served as editor in chief of major market dailies including the legendary Sacramento Union.

Some people will be quick to suggest that a jump from the House of Representatives to the presidency is just too big. However, in recent years, we’ve seen two Democratic presidential contenders emerge from virtual obscurity to win the highest office in the land – legitimate or illegitimately, with provable constitutional credentials or not.

First, there was Bill Clinton in 1992. True, he was previously governor of Arkansas, but that is a tiny state in terms of population. The entire population of Arkansas is less than 3 million today. It was considerably lower in 1992 – placing it in size smaller than many major cities in the U.S. On top of that, Clinton had zero experience outside of government jobs – and his highest salary before assuming the president was an astonishingly miniscule $35,000.

Then came Obama, who served just four years in the U.S. Senate following a brief career as an Illinois state legislator and community organizer before moving into the White House. He had no executive experience at all – either in government or the private sector.

Is some Democrat seriously going to make the case that Michele Bachmann isn’t experienced enough for the job after three terms in the House, several terms in the Minnesota state Senate and years as a federal tax litigation attorney and small-business owner?

I don’t think so.

Anyway, Americans demonstrated in 2010 they don’t revere career politicians. They prefer principled public servants – and that’s what Michele Bachmann represents to me and millions of other Americans before she ever makes her final decision about seeking the presidency.

She’s down to earth. She’s passionate about her beliefs. She’s attractive physically and in personality. She’s smart. She’s funny. And she is uncompromisingly principled.

Michele Bachmann exudes leadership – and that’s one of the reasons her opponents fear her.

People ask me all the time who would be best to succeed Obama in 2012. What America needs is a breath of fresh air. We don’t need any retreads. We don’t need any failed presidential candidates from the past.

What we need is someone like Michele Bachmann, a great communicator who knows what she believes in without equivocation, someone who knows how to stand up to the Beltway establishment and emerge unchanged by it.

I don’t know who else might be running. But we need at least one independent, feisty, fiery candidate like Michele Bachmann. If there is someone like her in the race, we can rest assured that we will have the opportunity to throw off the shackles placed upon the American people by the Obama regime and then some.

Is my goal simply getting America back to where we were the day Obama entered office? No.

It’s time to restore America to the constitutional principles that made it great.

It’s time to restore America to the principles of self-government.

It’s time to restore America as a sovereign, independent nation under the rule of law and the will of the people.

It will take extraordinary leadership to seize this momentous opportunity.

I have every confidence Michele Bachmann is one leader up to that task.